24 Mar 2014

At least 10 Southern African Development Community (SADC) secretariat officers have been awarded Diploma of Study in French Language (DELF) during a ceremony held at the French Embassy residence in Gaborone.

Speaking at the occasion, French Ambassador, Mrs Anne de la Blache said the 10 officers had shown hard work, perseverance and determination as it was not easy especially when one have other responsibilities.

She said working in SADC was a great opportunity as it broadened one’s field of experience, enables one to work with people from other countries and discover other cultures and challenges.

Ambassador de la Blache noted that it gave the best opportunity to practice the language they had learnt as French, as it was one of the official languages of SADC.

In addition, the French ambassador said it was even better when it came to building a career because French was also an official language the UN and all its institutions, the World Bank, IMF and important international partners like the EU, Switzerland or Canada.

At least 220 million people speak French today, 36 per cent being in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean, she said.

She said being able to communicate in other languages boosts one’s trading ability and sharing a common language also stimulates trade and investment flows.

French, she said, is also a communication, information and entertainment tool as millions watch French channels on television and the official language of 29 countries, second in this category after English.

The French Ambassador said the International Organisation for Francophone (IOF) is an important partner for SADC as these classes are organised in the framework of an agreement between SADC and the IOF, adding the first agreement was signed in 2007 in Gaborone and came to end in 2013 and it will be renewed in due course.

The agreement allowed this ambitious programme to be carried on with the support of Alliance Francaise de Gaborone, without which it would not have been possible, she said.

For her part, SADC executive secretary Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax expressed gratitude to the IOF for diligently implementing the cooperation agreement signed with SADC on the reinforcement of the use of French at the SADC secretariat.

She also commended French Embassy for supporting this programme over the years. Dr Tax said she is humbled and encouraged by the level of interest in the learning of French language by the secretariat staff.

The ambitious French teaching programme for SADC secretariat staff, supported by Alliance Francaise de Gaborone, has already realised tangible results with 20 staff members studying French last year, among whom 10 members successfully passed their diploma in French as a Foreign Language.

Dr Tax noted that it was important that the SADC secretariat staff is proficient and conversant in the SADC official languages, adding that cross border trade and the free movement of persons and goods within the SADC region can only be effectively implemented and realised in tandem with overcoming the language barriers in the region.

She said incompatibilities in immigration and customs policies, monetary zones, and official languages among members states, have become impediments to productive migration and integration within the SADC region.

These limitations, she observed, need to be taken on board the regional integration agenda. Ends